Kate's 2nd b-day party

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE!


She had a cupcake for breakfast on her birthday!!

Kate had lots of fun at her birthday party. She's been waiting for this day for weeks. She's been waking up talking about it for weeks now. She screams "Kate's birthday coming next week!!!" for weeks now! I think it was all she dreamed of and more. She had tons of fun!

We had about 30 people at our house and cooked out on the grill. It all seemed really hectic to me but I guess it went over well. I barely even saw Kate during the party. She was so busy!



Kate and Pap


Kate's pinata, birthday cake and enjoying some new presents.




She LOVES her new swimming pool!


Kate's princess dress up

So...I went shopping tonight!

And this is what I bought!!

The next american idol

This girl loves to sing. She has even written 2 originals: the du-be (pronounced doo-bee) song and the ba-be song. She requests that I sing them to her before bed each night!

Anyways...if you are interested please enjoy the next 3 videos of kate doing what she loves to do best.



I am a Child of God-(a church song for those not familiar) I can't believe how much kids learn. We sing this before bed most nights but I didn't know she knew it. She just started singing it by herself this weekend.

prego pic

I'm halfway there! I feel great! I find out baby boy or baby girl next thursday. I'll be sure to keep you posted!
20 weeks with baby #2


just for your comparison pleasure: 19 weeks with kate

Oh, the fun of a 2 year old!

(notice her eyes...she was just beginning to get pink eye here)

I mean that title literally at times and sarcastically at times. This girl is a trip.
"no boots, mommy." "no ponytail, mommy."(accompanied by lots of crying) "Kate blue sweater, mommy." (no matter the time of day, on top of jammies or not) "no, no mommy. Kate do it."

These are just some of the wonderful things my not even 2 year old tells me just about daily. She knows EXACTLY what she wants and makes that perfectly clear! She's quite the independent little girl. Until she needs help that is. Then all I hear over and over is "help mommy. mommy help. help kate mommy." you get the point. until I start actually helping her, because then all I hear is "no, no mommy. Kate help."

She's been saying some funny things though that I've been writing down. I'll share:
"Here mommy, a special treat." (bringing me a plate with a toy cookie on it)

"Kate's bread, right? Yeah." (answering her own question at dinner one night)

"What else you got?" (after opening an Easter present from Grandma)

"Ohhhh look what I got!"

"Hey, hey you take a nap! Listen to me." (talking to her babies)

"no happy no more. I sad. (while in the middle of crying)

And some Easter fun!

Happy Easter Everyone!

Bedtime

I was just putting Kate to bed...which went something like this:
jammies on
get nigh night and binky
pick out and read 3 books
sing 3 songs
then I ask Kate what song she wants to sing next and she says "bed now"

Well okay if that's what you want! So she's sleeping soundly and I'm happy!

Big Girl Bed!!!

On Sunday Dustin's family came up to visit and I put them to work helping me set up Kate's new room with her new BIG GIRL BED!

So far so good! She loves it! It's all Dora, of course. I bought the bed and Dora bedding on Craig's list for $30! What a deal!

She walks right into my room around 5 or 7 AM to tell me she has to go potty then walks right back and climbs in bed and goes back to sleep.

This is Kate seeing her new bed for the first time! She's so excited!




(Those letters aren't going to stay there...we were just looking for a home for them)



Playing dress up with Aunt Hannah and Alaina while we were setting up Kate's new big girl bed.

Pregnant pictures

17 weeks...these 2 pictures were taken on the same day a couple hours apart but I think there's a huge difference between them. I couldn't tell which is more accurate so I posted them both. Maybe I'm somewhere in the middle. (Although if we're being honest, I might really be as big as the second one after I've eaten even one single thing!)
I'm at the point where it takes me half an hour to find something that fits me. My clothes are getting too tight and making me look big and fat but my maternity clothes are still way too big. So what I'm wearing makes a big difference in how big I look.



17 weeks with kate


Do you think there's a difference?

This has been Kate's new made up language since Sunday. She loves to just ramble on. I love to see her imagination going!
You'll notice you can actually make out the word "fish" and "bubble." She just threw those in there for fun.



Kate and Daddy baked brownies tonight. That lucky girl got to lick the bowl! (dustin doesn't let me lick brownie batter when I'm pregnant because of the egg!!)

Kate and Mommy "posing."

Kate playing outside in the yard the other day.

DAY 7- THE RETURN

Yes, day 7 of our binky-less house has taken a turn. I just simply couldn't take it anymore. I felt as if I'd given it enough time and things were not improving. Be disappointed in me if you must but it had to be done.

Her days at home were spent napping from 2:30-4:30...finally and her days at daycare were spent screaming from 12:30-2.

Here she has decided not to sleep but has made this "bed" out of a ironing board and cora's changing pad.

Yesterday she napped at 3:30...finally and today it was 3:00 with NO nap in sight.

The sad, sad crying was just too much for me.

So I think we'll try again later some other time. For now my sweet, sweet little girl is sound asleep sucking on that little binky that brings so much joy to her life.

Day 2: Daycare- DISASTER

I guess "disaster" may be a little extreme but naptime at daycare today was terrible. Kate screamed from 12:30-2:00. She finally fell asleep on her own at 2:15. But then did sleep until 3:30...which is way later than usual at daycare. Luckily all the kids were taking long naps so it was still quiet.

The crying was definitely bad for 2 reasons: the other kids were trying to sleep and it was causing a few kids to act up and not stay on their beds AND it was REALLY sad. She was miserable.

But more annoying than the crying was that she kept crying "Mommy Up-a" so I'd snuggle her close to me over by her bed. Then right when I'd think she was calming down she'd say "lay down" then "Mommy leave." So I'd leave her alone only for her to repeat the same exact thing OVER and OVER again for an hour and a half!

But we survived. Bedtime was perfect again. So not too bad overall I guess.

Right now she's napping-Day 3 nap with no binky. We were out shopping though until 2:30 so she crashed in the car.

Anyways...that's the end of my binky update. I think it'll just only get better from here. We're getting there.

My sister and her family came up to visit us. Here's my sister, me, Kate and my niece Leslee.